Serendipity
by TheOracle18
Summary: 'This is the story of how I met Percy Jackson, and how he turned my life on its head. Maybe it was fate, maybe it was just serendipity.' - Annabeth's perspective of when she first meets Percy - one-shot.


_Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson, no copyright infringement intended, some of the dialogue in this fic is directly from The Lightning Thief. _

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_Serendipity: the __accident of finding something good without looking, happy accident, pleasant surprise._

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Prophecies are tricky things, their purpose may be to forewarn and guide people but in my experience they've only been misleading and most of all frustratingly confusing.

As a Daughter of Athena, I dislike anything that confuses me, I prefer things to be logical and constant.

Annabeth Chase, being confused by Prophecies since… gods only know how long.

When it comes to prophecies my advice would be to ignore them, let the Fates take you where they may and try not to die along the way.

At least this seems to be the best strategy, however when put into practise I found it to be impossible. Prophecies are a puzzle I can't resist, while maddening they are always accurate and I believe that the thing that makes the future so tricky to figure out is that prophecies wording allows for infinite possible interpretations, so no matter how it turns out in the end, the prophecy will be correct. Even though things could have ended up a different way, the prophecy will always be right.

Unfortunately, it is in our nature to jump to the most likely outcome which in some cases is the worst possible interpretation. However I've found, when it comes to Prophecies, the most likely, more often than not, becomes the least likely.

The same could be said for people, I pride myself on being a good judge of character but sometimes you just can't predict or comprehend how much a single person can change you.

This is the story of how I met Percy Jackson, and how he turned my life on its head. Maybe it was fate or maybe it was just serendipity.

* * *

For years I thought I would never be a Hero, never get my adventure. After my dad started his mortal family and completely forgot about me, more than anything, I wanted to show him that I mattered, that I was important.

Travelling with the Daughter of Zeus and the Son of Hermes was everything I could have ever hoped for. Thalia and Luke took me into their small group and made me feel included and needed, we were a family.

But good things never last. When Thalia was killed I felt like I was back at square one, Grover may have been the one taking the blame but we had all failed to protect her. I was accepted into Camp Half-Blood but I was just one of many children of Athena, nothing special.

Being the youngest kid at Camp did have it's perks though, many of the older campers doted in me, one of my elder sisters became closer to me than anyone, but one year she didn't come back for the start of the summer session, Chiron broke it to me that she had been killed my a monster. I felt like I'd lost Thalia all over again, more than ever I felt the danger that we were all in.

Years passed and Luke became distant, he never made time for me anymore like he used to when we first got to camp and we would hike through the forest looking for monsters to fight. Until one day he left on a quest, I begged him to let me go with him, I told him it would be just like old times. He'd gotten angry, and for the first time I was scared of him, he'd yelled that with Thalia gone we could _never_ go back to the way things were. He'd left alone and returned with more scars than were visible.

He pretended nothing was wrong and eventually I believed him, he seemed to go back to normal, in fact after a few weeks he started seeking me out to spend time with me again, it was like we had renewed our friendship and I felt closer to him than ever, though occasionally he still seemed reserved and distant.

I trained and trained and trained, constantly competing with my siblings and other cabins to be the best, my strategies always won us Capture the Flag, Chiron asked me to teach others in sword fighting and I was elected the Senior Counsellor for my cabin, despite being one of the youngest.

I was the best but it hadn't made me happy, I didn't feel fulfilled. I just felt like I was being constantly threatened for my top position. I needed to prove myself, I got the notion that if I succeeded in a Quest then I would finally feel like I had achieved something real, but Chiron eventually told me my time had not yet come, that I had to wait for someone special to arrive at camp. I waited in frustration for that time, with every new camper my hopes rose only to be disappointed.

Then the storm came.

* * *

I had finished a tiring day of yet more practise, there had been something ominous hovering in the air all day and it was making me nervous. Then again things had felt weird ever since the Winter Solstice, something had obviously happened but the satyrs weren't saying anything. I saw them whispering to each other but all I could make out was something about the Summer Solstice, I saw Chiron look up at the sky every morning in concern.

By contrast Luke seemed happier than ever, I hardly saw him for a while but then he started paying more attention to me again and even came to me personally to ask it our cabins could team up in the next Capture the Flag. I don't think I've ever blushed so much at any one time as when he was talking to me, I don't know what was wrong with me. Maybe I should ask an Apollo camper if they can diagnose me?

That night I had the strangest dream, everything started off blurry, like it was all moving really fast, until I finally saw a boy about my age with ruffled jet black hair and tanned complexion. He looked scared, terrified.

He turned to look back over his shoulder as if something was following him, like he was being hunted. He quickly turned back and for the first time I saw his eyes. Bright, piercing green eyes, panicked and frightened. Looking right at me. I got the weirdest feeling, I felt _protective_ of him. All I knew was that this boy was in danger and I should be helping him. Before I could register anything more about the dream, there was a crackle on electricity, a flash of lightning and the flare of an explosion.

I jolted awake, mindless panic and worry coursing through me. The hair on my arms stood up, as I lifted my head my hair stuck to my pillow with static. Once I took a few calming breaths I knew I had to go and see Chiron, I quickly changed out of my pyjamas and tied my hair into a loose ponytail.

On my way to the Big House, I thought I heard roaring coming from the other side of Half Blood Hill, past Thalia's Pine. I froze, my anxiety increased. I knew how to read the signs. Something very important, very dangerous, or both, was happening.

Running the rest of the way to the Big House, I heard the sound of a storm and though none fell over camp, I could see heavy sheets of rain falling just past the Pine. No stars where visible past the borders, angry black storm clouds swallowing them, I found it strange that no lightening lit up the sky, after all I'd seen it in my dream.

When I finally reached the porch of the Big House I was surprised to find Chiron sitting in his wheelchair, it was unlike him to be up so late. He looked up from his book when he heard me approaching.

"Hello, child, what brings you here at this time of night?"

"Chiron, I need to talk to you because I just had a really weird dream…" I told him everything I'd seen in the dream, and to my surprise he didn't look too worried, I'd expected a little nervousness, but there was a glint of something that might have been amusement in his eyes when I described the boy, as though he knew something I didn't.

"Well, what do you think it means? Do you know who the boy was in the dream? And why are you out here so late, anyway?" I asked, impatient for answers.

"I'm waiting here, Annabeth, because Grover should be returning from his keeper assignment any minute now, he is escorting a new half blood to camp."

"The one you've been teaching?" I had been curious about the new half blood ever since Chiron had left to teach him, I'd expected him to be back in a few days but when he returned at the weekend he'd said he would be spending very little time at camp until the mystery half blood was ready. Ready for what I don't know. Everyone was extremely curious, the new camper must be important. Was he connected to the weird things that were going on? Would _he _know what was going to happen on the Summer Solstice? The not-knowing was starting to drive me crazy.

"Yes," he answered, simply, not giving me any extra information.

I was going to ask more, when a boy staggered into the pool of light emitted from the big house windows and doorway.

I immediately recognised the satyr he was carrying with him, it was one of my best friends, Grover Underwood, he had been very excited when he got his new keeper assignment, and I'd been happy for him. But from the looks of things now, it hadn't gone according to plan. I sighed, things never did go according to plan for Grover.

As the boy collapsed onto the porch, too tired to carry on, it became obvious that they had been in a fight with a monster of some sort. I rushed over to help but before I got there I saw the boy's face. It was unmistakable, especially the eyes, even now when they were filled with pain and sadness. It was the boy from my dream.

I knew it instinctively, he's the one I've been waiting for. I can finally go on a quest!

Unconsciously, I found myself speaking, "He's the one. He must be."

Chiron shushed me, panic flashed in his eyes, "Silence, Annabeth. He's still conscious. Bring him inside."

Chiron helped me carry them both into the infirmary, Grover was muttering about food the whole way there but the boy had passed out. Only once we'd gotten them settled in beds did I speak again.

"What happened Chiron? Why is he different?" I gestured to the black haired boy.

He just shook his head sadly and said, "The monsters must have caught up to them, thank the Gods that they were able to get away."

He didn't say anything about the boy.

"Will they be alright?"

Turning to leave, he patted my shoulder calmly and said, "Yes Annabeth, they should both be fine in a few days, ambrosia and nectar should be all they'll need. You don't mind helping me tend to them do you?" I just nodded my consent absent-mindedly.

I looked over at the boy and saw he looked quite sick, he was pale and there was a light sheen of sweat on his forehead, he was shaking a little so I got an extra blanket from the cupboard to cover him with, he seemed to relax a bit. Fighting whatever monster it was must have drained his energy.

Chiron had continued to roll out in his wheelchair to get the ambrosia and nectar but I stopped him with a question.

"What's his name, Chiron?"

His eyes locked with mine and he seemed to be considering something until he finally answered.

"Percy Jackson."

He left without another word.

Over the next few hours I helped Chiron heal Grover who was soon up and looking for tin cans, I asked him about the new half blood but he was as vague as Chiron.

Chiron instructed me to look after Percy while they met with Mr D to discuss Grover's conduct on the mission so I was left trying, mostly unsuccessfully, to spoon feed Percy some ambrosia, most of it just slipped back out in puddles of drool.

It was kind of disgusting.

But his colour was returning and he seemed to be healing, he had at least stopped muttering in his sleep, none of it had made sense just something about maths and demons.

Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, I had a lot of time to think. I started by compiling all that I knew so far: there was a new half blood who Chiron thought was important enough to personally teach, something would happen on the Summer Solstice and that was just a few weeks away.

Then I remembered something I'd overheard recently. I'd asked Luke if he could show me some more moves with my knife and he'd agreed to meet me but he was running late, I'd gone out to entrance of the arena to see if he was coming and I'd heard voices just near the tree line. Not able to deny my curiosity I'd tiptoed over and seen Luke talking to a satyr. The satyr had looked like he'd rather be any other place than where he was. At first I hadn't been able to hear but then Luke's voice had suddenly became louder, "What do you mean it was stolen?! Do they know who took it?" he had sounded really concerned. I hadn't been able to hear anything else and the satyr soon scampered off.

I hadn't thought it was important at the time, besides things were constantly stolen around camp, but what if it was connected too. Considering how uncomfortable the satyr looked and how preoccupied Luke seemed while he trained me, it wasn't an unlikely solution.

Everything had started getting weird after the Winter Solstice so that must have been when something, whatever it was, was stolen. It was the perfect day to steal something and get away with it, everyone was busy and bustling on Olympus, one of the only two days of the year when all the gods are in one place. But, obviously, the culprit hadn't gotten away with it, the theft had been noticed. What could have been taken that could cause this much trouble? How much trouble had been caused? Was this the extent of it or was the worst being hidden from us? The satyrs were certainly being overly secretive.

There were far too many possible answers for my peace of mind. Maybe the new guy could help? If we were meant to go on a quest together we could probably help each other out.

I thought he woke up a few times but whenever I tried to talk to him he just passed out again. I was desperate to find out if he was anything to do with the weird things that had been going on and just when my curiosity was becoming uncontrollable he finally managed to answer me.

His green eyes fluttered open and I jumped closer, "What will happen at the Summer Solstice?"

His only response was a confused look until he managed to croak out "What?"

_Great._

I looked around to check the door, Chiron had said he would come back to check on Percy soon and I didn't want him to catch me interrogating the patient.

Reassured that I couldn't hear anyone coming, I continued "What's going on? What was stolen? We've only got a few weeks!"

"I'm sorry," he mumbled, "I don't…"

There was a knock at the door and I nearly jumped out of my skin, panicking I stuffed his mouth with some ambrosia to stop him talking and he promptly fell back to sleep.

I breathed a sigh of relief as I went to open the door for Chiron, he rolled in and asked how Percy was doing.

"Alright, I think. He's woken up a couple of times but only for a few seconds."

"Has he said anything? From what Grover's told me me might be quite confused."

Well, that explained why he wasn't very articulate before. Not able to meet Chiron's eyes, I fiddled with the ambrosia bowl and said "Nope," as casually as I could.

"Alright then, hurry along to your duties Annabeth. I'll look after him for now."

A little reluctant to leave I asked, "Will you let me know when he wakes up?"

"Of course, Annabeth. Now hurry, you'll be late for breakfast."

All day I couldn't concentrate, my mind was up at the Big House, I anxiously waited for Chiron's message that Percy had woken up. He couldn't sleep for that much longer, could he?

A couple of hours before dinner I gave up on waiting and went up to the Big House anyway. I didn't find Percy where I'd left him this morning, they must have moved him, so I went out to the back porch and found Grover leaning against the railing, holding a shoe box, watching over Percy who was still asleep in a deck chair.

"Grover!" I exclaimed, I'd only seen him conscious briefly last night before he'd had to leave to see Mr D and I was itching to hear what he could tell me, not to mention he was my friend who I hadn't seen for months now since he'd been on his mission.

"Hey Annabeth," he said, his smile wobbling with sadness as though he would burst into tears at any moment.

"What's wrong, Grover? What happened?" I asked, concerned for him.

"Well you know I've been on a mission for the last few months, I've been watching over Percy," he gestured to Percy before continuing, "For ages everything was going fine and I thought there were no monsters about but then a few weeks ago one comes out of nowhere and he had to deal with it all by himself, the monster was clever and made sure he was alone, he's only alive now because Chiron was able to get a weapon to him before she shredded him."

"Well, that's not so bad, we all know we run the risk of monsters if we stay out in the mortal world. I assume he was able to kill the monster, so no big deal, right?"

"It was a Fu- a _Kindly One_, Annabeth, she'd been hiding all year as his math teach not to mention he has no idea who he is!"

That certainly surprised me, "Oh… why didn't you tell him?"

"I thought we should have but Chiron was sure he wasn't ready yet, he said we needed to keep him ignorant for as long as possible, but with the fiasco with the Kindly One he must have started to suspect. As soon as we left school I could smell monsters coming closer, but they kept their distance mostly, which was strange, it was like they were waiting for something. Anyway, we got separated when school ended and he had to go home. It took me ages to finally track him down to Montauk but the monsters were nearly upon us!" He paused taking a deep breath, holding the shoe box a little tighter "Anyway, his mom drove us here but we had lost too much time and the monster caught up to us."

"What happened?" I whispered, Grover was looking sadder than ever.

"The car got blown up, I don't know how, I don't really remember," That must have been what I saw in my dream, the flash of lightning, "It knocked me out and I don't really know what happened after that, everything was really blurry, but his mom…" Grover choked on his words.

I felt a very ominous feeling, his mom couldn't enter the boundaries protection. What happened to her?

"She's not… is she?" I asked cautiously.

Grover's eyes filled with tears as he nodded. I felt a wave of sympathy for Percy, it seemed like he'd been through a lot.

"What was the monster? Did he kill it?"

Grover didn't answer, instead he handed me the shoe box he'd been holding. Cautiously opening it, I almost gasped when I saw what was inside; a black and white horn, the tip splattered with dried blood.

A Minotaur horn. Percy had killed the Minotaur with his bare hands. Impressive.

"He saved my life, Annabeth," he said looking over at the sleeping boy.

I nodded, I needed time to think about this. "I have to go, tell me when he wakes up."

Grover nodded and I left, walking round to the front porch I found Chiron and Mr D engaged in their usual pastime of playing Pinochle. Chiron, of course, was winning.

I was starting towards the steps when Chiron called me back, "I wouldn't leave just yet, Percy should be awake any minute now."

Excitement building, I nodded and went to stand against the railings to watch their game, Mr D had yet to say anything, which was unusual for him.

True to Chiron's word, I didn't have long to wait before I saw Percy hobble round to corner with his Minotaur horn clutched in his hand.

I heard him catch his breath as he looked out at the camp and the Long Island Sound,

_He not bad looking_, I thought, _cute even_.

Where did the heck did that come from? When did I become a daughter of Aphrodite? Still I could probably beat him in a fight with a good solid kick to the side, he didn't look like he had good balance.

He turned back to look at our group on the porch and as they came closer I saw Grover whispering to him, probably doing introductions.

His gaze lingered on Mr D and his expression turned slightly suspicious, as though the god reminded him of someone until he noticed Chiron and his face lit with recognition as he exclaimed, "Mr Brunner!"

Who? I thought he'd gone a little nuts but Chiron didn't seem to find the name strange so I didn't say anything.

Chiron invited him to play pinochle with them and offered him the seat to the right of Mr D, he took it though after Mr D's begrudging welcome he scooted a little further away. Can't say I blame him.

Chiron then called me forward to be introduced, "This young lady nursed you back to health, Percy," I thought this was a bit of an exaggeration but didn't interrupt, since Chiron addressed me, "Annabeth, my dear, why don't you go check on Percy's bunk? We'll be putting him in cabin eleven for now."

I thought it was quite optimistic of him to think that Percy would be getting an actual bunk considering how many campers there were currently in the Hermes cabin, he'd be lucky if he found a decent bit of floor, but it was obvious that Chiron wanted to speak to him without me there so I agreed instead of pointing out the obvious, "Sure, Chiron."

I was about to go when I looked at Percy one more time to see if I could deduce anything else about him but all I saw was the Minotaur horn in his hand. I guess I should actually say something to him now that he's conscious but what can I say? Hi, I'm Annabeth, I just met you but I think you might be the person I've been waiting for, for _years,_ for to take me on a quest, so… yeah, maybe not.

Oh gods, the silence had gone on too long! Say something! Say anything!

"You drool when you sleep."

Seriously. What's wrong with me?

Way to go, Annabeth, he's definitely going to take you on a quest now!

* * *

_Hi all, _

_So this is basically a redo of my other fic; Everything's Normal. But personally, I think that this one is much better, this version is much more Annabeth and I hope you all like it. _

_Again I may continue this but it really depends on whether it feel motivated enough to write it all, so it's just a one-shot for now._

_Reviews are really appreciated and since I'm the only person editing this I'd love if you could point out any spelling/grammar errors that you notice so they can be corrected. _

_Thanks so much for reading,_

_- TheOracle18_


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